Motorway will connect Veliko Tarnovo with Ruse

The plans the Government had to build a high-speed road between Veliko Tarnovo and Ruse have changed. The Regional Development Minister, Lilyana Pavlova, announced last week that it was decided that a motorway will connect the towns. The planning process will start this year and the Road Infrastructure Agency will allocate 4 million leva of its budget to the project. If funding is secured the motorway could be ready as early as 2020 according to Pavlova.

The Government hopes to find financing under the Juncker Investment Plan. Further talks will be held with the European Investment Bank for the motorway project to be included in the future European transport corridors operational programme which is to replace the current Transit Roads V which is funded by the bank.

The heavy traffic along this route was what forced the change of plans. The large numbers of heavy goods vehicles along the international road Svilengrad – Veliko Tarnovo – Ruse often cause traffic accidents. The better part of the road is two lanes and is hard to accommodate the large number of vehicles – only the HGVs using the road daily are estimated to be more than a thousand. The motorway will be 110 km long and its indicative cost is 870 million leva.

The road Veliko Tarnovo – Ruse is a part of Pan-European international transport corridor no 9 which one of the priority routes of the European Commission.